Demographics today
In Italy, about 90% of the population is urban and it is constantly decreasing over the years. Young graduates are leaving for other countries, the country is experiencing a real brain drain (estimated at around 250,000 per year) and according to the website ined.fr, Italy will have 60,461,800 people in 2020 and in 2050, according to forecasts, Italians will number only 54,381,700. In comparison, the trend is the opposite in France, where the population will be 65,129,700 in 2020 and 67,586,700 in 2050. This phenomenon in Italy is also explained by the increasingly low number of births. In 2019, the birth rate is 7.4 (per 1,000 inhabitants) and in 2050 it will only reach 7.2 per 1,000 inhabitants. By way of comparison, in France, the birth rate will reach 10.1 in 2050 per 1,000 inhabitants. Despite this trend, Italy remains a country with a high population density (205 inhabitants/km² compared to 119.2 in France), but there are clear contrasts between mountainous and industrialised regions, and between rural areas and those with a high urban concentration. From a regional point of view, Umbria has 882,000 inhabitants (December 2018), of which 355,000 people are active. It should be noted that 25% of people are 65 years or older... In the region's capital, Perugia, there are 166,676 inhabitants. The Marche region has 1,525,271 residents in an area of 9,401 km2. In Ancona, the capital, there are 100,696 inhabitants.
Migration flows
During the 1960s, Italy experienced a post-war economic miracle. The annual growth rate was 6% and unemployment in the North was non-existent. Between 1951 and 1961, the number of Italian immigrants trying their luck in the North is estimated at 2 million people and it was not until the 1970s that internal immigration stabilized. Since the refugee crisis in 2015, Italy has also had to deal with waves of illegal immigration arriving on its shores in the south of the country. In 2018, the number of registered foreign residents in Italy amounted to 5,255,503 people, of which 27% came from the European Union, 26% from other European countries, 21% from Asia, 20% from Africa and 6% came from the American continent. From a regional point of view, in Umbria, foreign residents number 95,935 of which 43.7% are men, recording an increase of 8.9% over the period 2012-2017. According to the latest statistics put online by the region, most come from Romania (27.3%), Albania (14.5%), Morocco (9.9%) and Ukraine (5.1%). Today, migratory flows do not make it possible to rebalance the demographic deficit of Italians, with the difficulty of integrating new arrivals. In the Marche, foreign residents, numbering 136,936, represent 9% of the population.
A difficult balance
In 2020, the country has a birth rate of 7.4 ‰ for a death rate of 10.70 ‰. The fertility rate, which is constantly falling, is insufficient for the renewal of generations, hence the risk in the long run of a dangerous aging of the population. In 2020, the number of births is 437,900. By way of comparison, in France, it is 719,200. The growth rate is negative: -1.5 per year per 1,000 inhabitants. The sexual distribution is fairly homogeneous: 49% men and 51% women. Life expectancy is 80 years for men and 84 years for women.
Retirement age
The problem of pensions, which is a current issue in France, is also a current issue in Italy. The Italians will retire even later! The legal retirement age is 67 years since 2019.
